Geoscientist Rosie Moore, often referred to as the "world's hottest scientist," has recently been diagnosed with a potentially deadly mosquito-borne disease following her trip to South America.
Knewz.com has learned that Moore contracted dengue fever, a viral infection that can be transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes.
The scientist and Snake Conservation and Bite Awareness Foundation Director shared a video on Instagram showing the symptoms she developed after she contracted the disease, along with glimpses of her recent travel to South America.
"There is no specific treatment for dengue, and while it can be fatal, most cases are less severe. I had many symptoms before being diagnosed such as loss of appetite (we would hike 5-12 miles a day and I was unable to get a single meal down for days), eye pain, chills, and fever," Moore wrote on Instagram.
"Pretty early on in my trip in South America, I had a ton of bug bites on me, but I didn't really start feeling weird until a few days in. This is because dengue fever takes a few days for the onset, and I'm not really sure when exactly I was bitten," Moore explained in her video, which showed her having developed a rash-like outbreak all over her stomach.
"My first symptom was really extreme eye pain. I kept trucking through the trip, but I kept telling everybody, every time I looked any direction, my eyes felt like something was pulling on them."
Eye pain is one of the most common symptoms of dengue fever, along with joint aches, nausea, and rashes, among many others, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"It kept getting worse over the next few days, and probably two days after the eye pain started, I woke up with a really high fever. The fever was so high, I genuinely could not get out of bed. And I was trying to cool myself down by any means possible," the geoscientist further said in her Instagram video.
The World Health Organization,aches%2C%20nausea%2C%20and%20rash.) (WHO) notes that around half of the world's population is at risk of dengue with an estimated 100–400 million infections occurring each year. While many dengue cases can be asymptomatic, more severe instances can even result in death.
"Most people who get dengue will not have symptoms. But for those who do, the most common symptoms are high fever, headache, body aches, nausea, and rash. Most will get better in 1–2 weeks. Some people develop severe dengue and need care in a hospital," WHO wrote in a fact sheet about the disease.
The organization added that instances of dengue fever have seen a drastic growth over the years. WHO received around 505,430 reports of the disease in 2000, a number that reached 5.2 million in 2019.
Many of Moore's followers came out with supportive comments, offering her pieces of advice.
"You should drink a lot of fresh juices and keep your platelets count in check. Avoid brushing your teeth and hair because your gum are very sensitive at this point and they must not bleed since if your platelets count are low, bleeding won't stop and it won't stop which could be life-threatening," one of her followers wrote.
Another follower asked what her recovery has been like, to which she replied, "Mine was probably worse because I was doing such extreme physical activity when I didn't feel well, but I didn't have any energy for like 2 weeks to the point it was hard for me to just walk."
However, the scientist does not want her story to deter other people from traveling to remote places.
"I was hesitant to share this because I feel like so many people are scared to travel to more remote places, but the trip was so worth it, and I would encourage anyone to get out there and see more remote places of the world," she wrote on Instagram.